A Mound of Space
Kipple is a word invented by the science fiction author Philip K. Dick for a concept similar to entropy. It has inspired many of the photographs seen in the Kippleverse, discussed below and sprinkled into this post. But first let’s dive into the concept itself. (more…)
If you a looking for proof that physicists are among the best artists working today, beyond the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland, look no further than the Large Helical Device Project in Japan.
Whatever this thing does, it does it beautifully.
Leave it to science to transform dada into data. A new study suggests that the experience of nonsense, “may prime the brain to sense patterns it would otherwise miss — in mathematical equations, in language, in the world at large,” according to a recent article in the New York Times, How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect.
The article continues: (more…)
Super geeky, but a beautiful image. It was created by Perry Hung, who explains: (more…)
This image of “Nano-Explosions” won first prize in at the November 2007 Materials Research Society (MRS) “Science As Art” competition.
“Nano-Explosions Color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph of an overflowed electrodeposited magnetic nanowire array (CoFeB), where the template has been subsequently completely etched. It’s a reminder that nanoscale research can have unpredicted consequences at a high level. (Image: Fanny Beron, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, Canada)”
Thinking more about the work of linguist Simon Kirby, featured in the New York Times book review that I wrote about a couple days ago, so I Googled him. That led me to the rich vein of glorious word ore that is Linguistic Typology, an academic journal about, well, linguistic typology, stupid.
The LT website features an index of all the articles and book reviews published in the journal’s ten-year history. Here is a mashup list of titles from this page — beginning with good old Simon Kirby, who leads off this list with a jaw-dropping title from 1997: (more…)
Interesting review in the New York times today of a new book that attempts to unravel the mystery of how language came to be: THE FIRST WORD — The Search for the Origins of Language, by Christine Kenneally.
This it what turned me on the most (italics mine): (more…)
Quoted by Doron Swade in his book, The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer, this seems pretty much universally relevant:
Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple.
K.C. Cole has a good article in the Columbia Journalism Review, Weird Science: Why editors must dare to be dumb, about how science editors tend to be uncomfortable with advanced science topics they do not understand. What it boils down to, in Cole’s opinion, is a fundamental discomfort with uncertainty and senselessness: (more…)